About

Far-Plane is a unique role-playing game that teaches essential leadership skills through exciting challenges and quests. Set on a resource-starved planet torn among warring factions, players navigate complex political environments, unite diverse peoples, & build strategic alliances to save the world. Far-Plane empowers players to evaluate situations and make decisions using critical thinking, build alliances, analyze character and motivation, and form lasting relationships with diverse individuals. These important skills in Boundary-Spanning Leadership enhance real-world leadership and relationship-building skills, making smarter, more thoughtful individuals who are better equipped for success in a rapidly changing global society.

The Production Team

The Boundary Spanning model was developed to prepare individuals to effectively—and successfully—operate in today’s workplace. The original, face-to-face model has been used successfully with corporate and government organizations for over ten years—including training for the military and state department personnel charged with transitioning the U.S. out of Iraq. Far-Plane is a collaboration between The Center for Creative Leadership—a top-ten ranked leadership firm—and Triad Interactive Media—winner of the 2013 CODiE Award for Best Education Game or Simulation. The product is a ground-breaking event in the leadership training industry, and is the first and only console-quality game-based training program for teaching high-level leadership skills.

Literature

Leaders and organizations we have been privileged to work with are making this critical transformation. Global corporations are stepping outside their established beliefs and practices to work in new ways. Nonprofits are reimagining the way they operate internally and partner externally. And community and government agencies are overcoming differences to collaborate in new and unprecedented ways.
The aim of these practical tactics is to help individuals and groups incorporate boundary spanning into their everyday leadership. While the need for boundary spanning often is revealed in crisis or through one-off events, its greatest power lies in the transformation of organizational thinking and culture. View a complete overview of the Boundary Spanning Leadership model here. View two White Papers developed around the model and program below.

The Far-Plane model was used with the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense to aid in coordinating efforts during the U.S. transition out of Iraq. Download the White Paper on this initiative here.

A white paper was produced that discusses develop of the initial prototype of this game. View it here.

Overview

Educational

Far-Plane is centered on teaching the BSL model. Each level in the game is based on one of the BSL practices– buffering, reflecting, connecting, mobilizing, weaving, and transforming. The different groups the player meets also represent one of the five boundaries – vertical, horizontal, stakeholder, demographic, and geographic. The solutions to each puzzle reflect BSL tactic used in the real world.

Based On Research-based Model

The BSL Model emerged from 10 years of research involving more than 2,800 surveys and nearly 300 interviews with leaders from across the world and diverse organizations, including businesses, government, education, nonprofits, and the military. As far as we know, Far-Plane is the first serious game to be built on a research based model.

Narrative-driven

Far-Plane takes place on the planet of Myria, home to several ancient regimes. The planet is falling apart due to the constant pillaging of its natural resources. The player’s mission is to bring the different groups together and show them that they are all responsible for contributing to the planet’s current crisis and that they must all work together to stave off the worst effects.

Accessible

Far-Plane is geared towards a wide range of game experience though it will likely mostly skew towards casual and non-gamers. In order to create a fun experience, the game will be very simple to use. The player should be more focused on learning about the BSL model and solving problems with it rather than figuring out how to manipulate the game.

Puzzle-oriented

The core experience of Far-Plane is solving puzzles integrated into the narrative. The BSL model is brought to life by the characters in the game resulting in an adventure style game with an emphasis on dialogue puzzles. The player will need to explore their environment, talking to each of the group leaders, asking those questions, and finding ways to solve their issues.

Branching Storyline

The story of Far-Plane branches at several points. Each time a player plays through the game, they have a chance of having a different experience and a different ending. This experience is based on how much they adhere to the BSL model while trying to solve the puzzles for the groups. Finding the incorrect solution could cause a group to become unavailable for another puzzle later in the game. Many puzzles will have several solutions that are tailored to the player’s experience.

Support

Use this area to get answers to frequently Asked Questions about Far-Plane. If you have technical trouble and your question is not listed below, simply message us using the contact form at this bottom of this Web page. A member of our staff will get back to you quickly with assistance.

Q: Far-Plane will not load for me.

Are you using the latest version of the Chrome Browser? If not, please upgrade your browser. Also be sure to use a laptop or desktop.

Q: The game and videos load slow.

Make sure that you are on a broadband connection. High-speed Internet is required to engage with Far-Plane.

Q: Can I use Far-Plane on my iPad or Android OS tablet?

While Far-Plane was developed using HTML5 and javascript and will work on tablets, we have not yet optimized the gaming experience for those devices. You may get unexpected results.

Q: I think I’m missing some close buttons or some continue buttons when I play.

Make sure your computer's screen resolution is set so that the entire game window is visible. You should see a complete rectangle with just a bit of white space around all corners.

Purchase

To get more information on purchasing Far-Plane for your organization, click here to send us a quick email and express your interest. Alternately, you can use the contact form at the bottom of this page.